Cayman dominates offshore deals stats

The Cayman Islands continued to dominate as the offshore jurisdiction home to the most M&A deals and IPOs in the second quarter of the year, according to figures compiled by Appleby.

The domicile experienced an 85 percent rise in the number of transactions recorded over the previous quarter. The quarter recorded 732 deals across jurisdictions—an increase of 25 percent when compared to the first quarter of the year—worth a cumulative $94.4 billion.

“The Cayman Islands were again way out in front for offshore deal activity both in volume and value terms in the second quarter of 2015,” said Simon Raftopoulos, a Cayman-based partner and member of Appleby’s corporate finance and private equity teams.

“While Cayman routinely leads offshore deal activity, the jurisdiction had a particularly strong quarter in Q2, with the number of deals up 85 percent on the previous quarter, while the value of those transactions has more than doubled.”

Cayman-incorporated companies were the target in 253 transactions worth a cumulative $37.9 billion, accounting for over a third of offshore deal volume and value. The jurisdiction was also home to four of the 10 largest deals that took place in the second quarter. This included the largest deal in which Hutchison Whampoa announced the sale of a 30 percent stake in the parent company of Telefonica UK, based in Cayman.

Hong Kong followed the Cayman Islands in terms of deal value, with 113 deals worth $25bn, and Bermuda followed Cayman in deal volume, with 127 deals worth $13.8 billion. Cayman, Bermuda, the BVI and Hong Kong saw the most transactional activity, and all of the 10 largest deals that took place involved a business incorporated in one of those jurisdictions.

The majority of offshore IPOs that were either announced or completed in Q2 2015 also involved businesses from the Cayman Islands, according to the report. Twenty-eight of the 40 companies concerned are incorporated in Cayman, seven in the Crown Dependencies, three in Bermuda and two in the BVI.